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Mental health disorders are among the leading worldwide causes of disease and long-term disability. This issue has a long and painful history of gradual de-stigmatization of patients, coinciding with humanization of therapeutic approaches. What are the current trends in Russia regarding this issue and in what ways is it similar to and different from Western countries? IQ.HSE provides an overview of this problem based on research carried out by Svetlana Kolpakova.

On September 5, Laurie Manchester, Associate Professor of History at Arizona State University, presented her paper on voluntary repatriation of Russians from China to the Soviet Union between 1935 and 1960. The presentation was part of the research seminar, ‘Boundaries of History’, held regularly by the Department of History at HSE University in St. Petersburg. HSE News Service spoke with Laurie Manchester about her research interests, collaborating with HSE faculty members, and the latest workshop.

Dr. Sabyasachi Tripathi, from Kolkata, India, is a new research fellow at HSE University. He will be working at the Laboratory for Science and Technology Studies of the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge.

This paper examines the eect of price matching guarantees (PMGs) in a
sequential search model. PMGs are simultaneously chosen with prices and some
consumers (shoppers) know the rms' decisions before buying, while others
(non-shoppers) enter a shop rst before observing a rm's price and whether or
not the rm has a PMG. In such an environment, PMGs increase the value of
buying the good and therefore increase consumers' reservation prices. This
increase is so large that even after accounting for the possible execution of
PMGs, rms prots are larger under PMGs than without. We also consider the
incentives of rms to choose PMGs and show that an equilibrium where all
rms oer PMGs does not exist because of a free-riding problem. PMGs can
only be an equilibrium phenomenon in an equilibrium where some rms do and
others do not oer these guarantees.

This paper presents the results of empirical research on peer group effects (PGEs) in universities. Alternative explanatory microeconomic approaches of PGEs based on education externalities and scores competition among students. These are used to formulate testable hypotheses, which allow revealing the nature of PGEs in Economics Department at Higher School of Economics. Econometric hypotheses testing procedures show that competition based PGEs model cannot be rejected at 5% significance level. This means that PGEs among the students can be explained by the model of their competition for scores/credits rather than by conventionally considered education externalities. This fact indicates that students are more interested in the formal component of higher education rather than in accumulating human capital while studying.

The paper examines the institute of minimum wage in developed and transition economies and in a number of the developing countries. First of all the institutional mechanism of minimum wage fixing is considered. One of the sections explores the dynamics of absolute and relative levels of minimum wage. The special attention is paid to the impact of the institute of minimum wage on the labour market. The author considers the mechanism of transmission of the minimum wage increases on the employment and unemployment dynamics. The paper also contains the result of the empirical research. The experience of many countries witnesses that large increases in minimum wage levels lead to the stagnation of the employ-ment, especially of the disadvantaged groups. The negative effect is larger for the companies with higher share of labour costs and more active use of unqualified labour, that is small businesses and agricultural enterprises. One of the main conclusions is that the minimum wage is not an effective tool of the poverty reduction as the majority of the recipients live in households of average and upper average income.

Smoking is a problem, bringing signifi cant social and economic costs to Russiansociety. However, ratifi cation of the World health organization Framework conventionon tobacco control makes it possible to improve Russian legislation accordingto the international standards. So, I describe some measures that should be taken bythe Russian authorities in the nearest future, and I examine their effi ciency. By studyingthe international evidence I analyze the impact of the smoke-free areas, advertisementand sponsorship bans, tax increases, etc. on the prevalence of smoking, cigaretteconsumption and some other indicators. I also investigate the obstacles confrontingthe Russian authorities when they introduce new policy measures and the public attitudetowards these measures. I conclude that there is a number of easy-to-implementanti-smoking activities that need no fi nancial resources but only a political will.

One of the most important indicators of company's success is the increase of its value. The article investigates traditional methods of company's value assessment and the evidence that the application of these methods is incorrect in the new stage of economy. So it is necessary to create a new method of valuation based on the new main sources of company's success that is its intellectual capital.